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It was genius…

or so I thought

I lived for a time, on a farm in rural Michigan when I was a young boy.  There were structures far in the back of the property for housing cows, chickens, feed and other farm staples.

Inside one of the structures was a chicken coop.  When doing chores in the early morn or late night, it would be lit by a single incandescent bulb hanging bare from the low naked ceiling.

Just outside was a narrow, shallow creek running parallel to the wooden structure housing the chickens.  A wooded moderate growth of trees and shrubs, sufficient enough to be considered a young child’s forest, stretched just beyond the runnel which required a plank to walk across.

It was winter at that time and It was my job to tend to the chickens and to the coop.  Every time I found a dead chicken in the coop, fear would well up within me.  I was certain I would not escape punishment, so I found a means by which to prevent discovery and hid the evidence.

I took the dead chickens out into the woods and found an old stump, left from years of the necessary downing of trees; cut to provide sufficient wood for fireplaces to accommodate the cold Michigan winters.

The older stumps had rotted and provided a deep, narrow hollow that would facilitate my plan to hide the loss of the occasional chicken.  They couldn’t possibly know, because they never counted the chickens.  It was genius…

Until it Wasn’t...

In the summer, as the sun would rise and heat the air, a pungent smell of decay began to work its way through the woods and into the nostrils of all who were in near proximity.  It wasn’t long before the jig was up, and my duplicity was exposed.

I learned at a very young age that when the dead chickens come home to roost, you won’t be able to hide the stench

Sin Is Like That...

You may think you’ve buried it deep—hidden it well.  But sin doesn’t stay buried.

It decays, It smells and It exposes.

“Be sure your sin will find you out.”— Numbers 32:23

“ For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.”— Luke 8:17

Don’t try to hide your sin.  Sin has a smell—and it reeks in the nostrils of God.

What Have You Buried?

Is there something you’ve tried to bury?  Some failure, some compromise, or is there some hidden sin tucked deep into some old, hollow, rotted out stump of your past—hoping no one would notice?

The truth is, what we bury doesn’t stay buried.

Sooner or later, what was done in the dark begins to leak into the light.

But here’s the good news:

God doesn’t expose to humiliate—He exposes to heal.  Yes, that’s right…what You Try to Conceal, God Longs to Heal.  His desire is not to shame you, but to save you.

Bring it to Him. Confess it.  Let grace go deeper than guilt ever did.  Because when you uncover it before God,  He covers it with mercy.  And where sin once reeked, forgiveness now brings the fragrance of grace.

My Prayer:

Lord, shine your light into every hidden place. ‘Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me’.  I bring my brokenness to You, trusting that…Where sin once ruled...Your Grace now reigns.

~ Brother John Tarter